Friday, November 20, 2009

Down the Rabbit-Hole: The Loyola woman who accused three young men of rape recanted and the police aren't charging them, but the dean of students calls her -- a 'survivor.' Say what?!

"The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well."

We recently reported that a woman recanted after accusing three 18-year-old male classmates of raping her at Loyola University. The university didn't think the incident posed a danger to the student population, and the police aren't charging the three young men.

Now the dean of students had this to say -- and men, don't spit out your coffee or punch the computer screen when you get to the third paragraph:

Jane Neufeld, dean of students, said if the university felt the student population was in any danger following the report of the assault, an e-mail would have been sent out immediately.

“It’s been reported and it allegedly happened,” Neufeld said. “We’re following our procedures to get to the truth.”

“We take sexual assault very seriously,” she explained. “We need to be able to protect the survivor and all those involved at this sensitive time.”

Did you get that? The woman recanted; the university itself didn't think there was a danger; the police aren't charging the three men who are barely older than boys -- but the woman is a "survivor"?

Come again? And the female dean also says this is a "sensitve time"?

Of course it's a sensitive time -- for the three falsely accused young men. (Here's something you won't see feminists do, I'm going to engage in a little victim blaming: boys, you were stupid to put yourselves in that situation. No one ever deserves to be falsely accused of rape, but you need to be more careful about the women you trust. It's an occupational hazard of being born male.)

But let's think about what it means to say she's a "survivor"?! Here's the bottom line: if she's a "survivor," the three young men must be RAPISTS. So much for due process, the presumption of innocence, fairness, justice, and gender equity. Dean Neufeld has declared the boys guilty by reason of penis.

What in hell is wrong with you, Dean Neufeld? Seriously? When you find this post -- and people like you usually do -- please write to me and explain what motivated you to use that term. You trivialize rape and rape survivors by sweeping in their company women who recant rape claims. The only "survivors" here are the young men, but I suppose their victimization doesn't count, because of the penises and all.

And people wonder why young men are staying away from college in droves?

What is so difficult for people to accept here? There was no rape; the woman recanted; the police aren't charging the young men with a crime; and the school needs to drop it.